Machines such as, for example, construction equipment, passenger vehicles, vocational trucks, and other machines known in the art are often equipped with one or more components that require continuous monthly service for operation of the components. The service could include, among other things, a phone service, an internet service, a locating service, a data acquisition service, a health monitoring and/or reporting service, or other services known in the art. For billing/reporting/activating purposes, the components may require registration to a particular user.
One example of registering a component that requires continuous service is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,915,126 (the '126 patent) issued to Mazzara, Jr. on Jul. 5, 2005. The '126 patent describes an in-vehicle wireless communication system that requires user registration prior to activation of the system. A vehicle identification number associated with a vehicle is received by a vehicle dealer. The dealer then determines an electronic serial number of a network access device located in the vehicle based on the vehicle identification number. Identification information of a user of the vehicle is received by the dealer. The dealer then sends the electronic serial number and the user identification information to a selected wireless carrier to obtain a mobile phone number, thereby activating the communication system.
Although the method of the '126 patent may sufficiently register a vehicle wireless communication system with a phone service carrier, the method may be burdensome and limited. In particular, because the method of the '126 patent is designed for manual completion by a vehicle dealer at the time of purchase of the vehicle, it may require significant effort of the dealer at an inconvenient time and provide opportunity for error. In addition, if the vehicle is re-sold or otherwise transferred to another user, the entire manual process may need to be repeated.
The system of the present disclosure is directed towards overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.